Effect of fire on insectivorous bat activity in northern Australia: does fire intensity matter on a local scale?
Julie Broken-Brow
A E , Alan T. Hitch B , Kyle N. Armstrong C D and Luke K.-P. Leung A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Agriculture and Food Sciences, University of Queensland, Lawes, Qld 4343, Australia.
B Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
C School of Biological Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia.
D South Australian Museum, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia.
E Corresponding author. Email: julie.brokenbrow@uqconnect.edu.au
Australian Journal of Zoology 67(6) 260-268 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO20030
Submitted: 4 May 2020 Accepted: 3 November 2020 Published: 7 December 2020
Abstract
Fire is notably becoming more intense, frequent and widespread due to climate change. In northern Australia, inappropriate fire regimes have been implicated in mammal declines, yet nothing is known about how different aspects of fire regimes affect bats in this region. This study aimed to determine how fire intensity, associated with seasonality, affects insectivorous bats on a local scale. An experimental M BACI approach was used on five site replicates across Cape York Peninsula, where ultrasonic detectors were used to determine the activity of insectivorous bats in response to low intensity burns (LIBs) and high intensity burns (HIBs) on a local scale. Total bat activity increased due to LIBs, but showed no response to HIBs. Activity of edge-open guild bats also increased due to LIBs but decreased in response to HIBs. Activity of open guild bats was unaffected by LIBs, but exhibited a strong positive response to HIBs. Activity of closed guild bats showed no response to fire, or fire intensity. Responses were likely derived from changes in habitat structure and prey availability. Given that each bat guild responded differently to each fire intensity, this lends support to the ‘pyrodiversity begets biodiversity’ concept, which is currently the basis for many fire management practices for conservation in northern Australia.
Keywords: bat conservation, bat guilds, burn regime, ecomorphological guild, mammal decline, microbats, pyrodiversity, savanna.
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